Tokyo ruling on Kenjiro Tsuda’s AI voice imitation lawsuit
The Tokyo District Court’s 30 September 2026 judgment on voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda’s request to remove TikTok videos. It distinguishes the court’s discussion of voice publicity rights from rejection of the claim after the videos were deleted.
Issue summary & timeline
AI SUMMARY · SONNET
Japan's Tokyo District Court ruled Sept. 30, 2026 on voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's suit against TikTok over an account posting 188 AI-narrated videos (July 2024-Sept 2025) allegedly mimicking his voice. The court held a voice, like a portrait, can carry publicity rights protected from unauthorized commercial exploitation, but rejected Tsuda's deletion request since the account and data had already been removed by TikTok before judgment, leaving infringement questions undecided. The ruling follows Japan Actors Union guidance (Feb 2026) urging performers to clarify AI training/reuse terms, duration, fees and data controls before signing contracts, and a Justice Ministry report (Aug 2026) on civil liability for AI likeness/voice misuse—neither of which the court's narrow procedural ruling resolved.
Japan's actors' union had already urged performers to check six issues in AI voice contracts, including training, reuse, pay and data storage, before the Tokyo District Court ruled in Kenjiro Tsuda's TikTok case. The court recognized a conditional publicity-rights principle for voices but dismissed the deletion request because the videos were gone; it did not decide that this particular audio infringed his rights.
